


The Amazing Exploits of Sentinel Prime!

by Caia (Caius)



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Cuddling and Snuggling, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Season 3, Storytelling, tf_speedwriting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-14
Updated: 2010-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-14 13:29:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caius/pseuds/Caia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which almost everyone wants Optimus back, but Kup's nostalgia goes back a bit further....</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Amazing Exploits of Sentinel Prime!

**Author's Note:**

> Original version posted to [](http://community.livejournal.com/tf_speedwriting/profile)[**tf_speedwriting**](http://community.livejournal.com/tf_speedwriting/) back in June.

"It wouldn't have happened under _Optimus_." Rodimus didn't bother to look behind him as he sat in the medbay with the other wounded, First Aid and Hoist scrambling to take care of them all. It didn't matter who said it. Everyone said it. Everyone thought it, Rodimus most of all.

He was out of hearing when Springer nudged the offending mech hard, and pointed out that under Optimus, they had been _losing_.

*****

"It wouldn't have happened under Optimus!" Rodimus had a very good idea who was saying it, this time. Rodimus didn't even think the ambassador in question even _knew_ Optimus, but she was probably quite correct: Optimus had always known what to _say_ at these things, how to make everyone listen to him and follow him in a common cause.

While Rodimus just had a real knack for saying exactly the wrong thing. He watched, sadly, as the other delegation zoomed off. They had _not_ appreciated Rodimus' wry comment about their inevitable deaths.

A large tail bumped into his leg in what he recognized as a reassuring manner, and into a small table in what was a decidedly _non_ reassuring manner. "Me _Grimlock_ like Rodimus better!"

Great. Speaking of diplomacy-- _why_ had Rodimus decided it would be a good idea to have Grimlock serve refreshments at the peace conference, again?

"Thanks for the support," Rodimus sighed.

*****

Magnus never did _say_ anything, but Rodimus knew he wished Optimus were there just as much as Rodimus did. And, as Magnus struggled to fulfill the role of second-in-command, probably Prowl as well.

"This would never have happened under Optimus," grumbled one of the landlords--Rodimus couldn't remember his name--that they were trying to convince to house Paradronian refugees. " _He_ would never have blown up a planet."

" _Optimus_ isn't here right now," Magnus said, curtly. "We can't resurrect him for you, but we _can_ offer you fair rent."

Rodimus turned away, angry at himself. He knew--he'd been told many times over, now--that it had been a bad decision--but what could they have expected?

He wasn't Optimus.

*****

"You know who I miss?" Kup interrupted Rodimus' brooding by showing up at his favorite brooding hill with a couple cubes of energon. He pushed one into Roddy's hands; he took it, instinctively.

"Optimus?" Rodimus said, dully.

"Naw. _Sentinel_ Prime. Now _those_ were the days."

Roddy looked up at him, startled into laughter for a second. "Trust you to go one up on everyone else in the nostalgia game, Kup."

"I'm serious, kid." He sipped from his cube. "When I was, well, younger than I am," he grinned at Roddy, "Sentinel Prime was our leader. And he was _magnificent_. Already old when he took power--they said he was around since the very beginnings of the Autobots, and he won the war that _started_ the golden age."

He winked at Roddy. "Pretty, too. Big, and blue, and orange."

"And Megatron killed him." Rodimus gave him a _look_.

"Yes. Leaving the Autobots to no one at all, at least until a young upstart showed up with the Matrix, calling himself Optimus Prime and making enough mistakes to make _you_ look good."

Rodimus shrugged. "He got better. I just want to stop having to do this."

"You _will_ get better, Rodimus. Optimus' first year was only _not_ a disaster because things were _already_ a disaster. He was inspirational--or at least that thing you've got in your chest was--but the Autobots continued to lose the war.

"In your first year," Kup poked him in the Autobot symbol, "we retook Cybertron."

Rodimus sighed. "That wasn't me. Mostly it was Unicron hitting the Decepticon sectors so hard. And we're only barely rebuilding, really."

"We _are_ rebuilding, though, kid." Kup wrapped his arm around him. "And Optimus was Cybertron's war leader. You'll be the leader for its peace."

"We're _not_ at peace." Rodimus curled up into him, doing his best to cuddle into his side the way he'd been able to do as Hot Rod. The size difference made it awkward, but it was still comforting.

Kup pulled Roddy closer and held as much of him as he could. "Not yet. But we have Cybertron, Rodimus. The Autobots haven't held Cybertron practically since Sentinel's day."

Roddy sighed and snuggled in. "Tell me a story about Sentinel, then."

Kup grinned. "By the time I knew him, Sentinel was mostly a desk leader. But he hadn't lost the strength he'd had when he wrested Cybertron from the Decepticons the first time, no! And every once in a while, we would all be reminded of this." Kup looked down at Roddy fondly for a moment before starting the story in earnest.

"It was a long time ago, on a planet called Hydrus Four. Sentinel was there, and a number of his closest advisers, including Emirate Xaaron. Who wasn't an Emirate quite yet, he was just a young mech, not much older than I was.

"Anyway. They were visiting Hydrus Four to establish diplomatic relations for the exchange of medical knowledge. Ratchet was there--practically right off the assembly line, and he threw quite a party back in the day, let me tell you! They were _legendary_." Kup's eyes glazed over a bit, remembering parties past.

Rodimus nudged him. "Sentinel was on Hydrus Four...?"

"Oh. Yes! Right. Now, Hydrus Four has--or had, at least--a deposit of a legendary miracle fuel called Nucleon. Hidden on an island, guarded by monsters, effects may be unpredictable, you know how it goes. Very much forbidden, _especially_ on a diplomatic mission, but of course someone decided to give it a try."

Roddy grinned. "Of course. Was it you?"

"Not this time. I was too busy body-guarding one of Ratchet's parties. I came in a little later. The somebody in this case was a mech named Rollout, who snuck out in the middle of the night and decided it would be a good plan to try to bring some of the stuff back. _I_ didn't find this out until the next morning, when they sent out the rescue party.

"The rescue party wasn't exactly supposed to have Sentinel Prime in it, or Xaaron, for that matter, but both of them were too stubborn to stay behind. Especially after the _first_ search party vanished!"

Roddy shivered happily. It wasn't scary, exactly, just...shivering was the appropriate response. It was what Hot Rod would have done.

"Anyway. So Sentinel and Xaaron and a bunch of the security detail--including poor young Kup, trying to keep the dignitaries from getting themselves killed--travelled to the island, along with a few of our Hydrian hosts. Though _they_ waited a safe distance from the island for us to come back, or not. _They_ knew the area well enough to fear it.

"The monsters--they weren't like anything I'd ever seen before. Zombies, they said: dead mechs and yet alive, and rotting almost like organics. And very, very difficult to take down, much more than you'd expect from their condition. They would keep going at you until you cut off everything they they could get at you with."

Roddy shivered some more, and pulled Kup closer.

"Anyway. We lost two good mechs, there, trying to chase one fool, but finally we got in there. And Sentinel, by the way, was magnificent--taking down way more zombies than any of the rest of us, and saving the lives of those who were there to defend _him_.

"We did find the pool of Nucleon. The medics we'd talked to had said that its effects were unpredictable at best, and that even if we managed to get there, it wasn't really worth the risk--but of course they'd be happy if we brought back a sample, if we had the chance.

"Xaaron insisted on sample-collecting duty, so _he_ was the one that fell in head-first when we got surprised by Rollout himself. Sentinel the only one quick enough to haul him out while the rest of us were busy trying to restrain Rollout, who was suddenly much stronger and even crazier than he used to be.

"Sentinel got Xaaron out. And the rest of us out, eventually. The Nucleon didn't make Xaaron crazy, at least, not like Rollout--who was never quite all there to begin with--but he wasn't able to transform for the rest of his life.

" _And_ he saved the sample and successfully concluded diplomatic relations with Hydrus Four."

Roddy sighed happily. "Good story. One I actually haven't heard before. I didn't know you even _had_ those."

"Hmph! Just 'cause you're Prime doesn't mean I can't still take you over my knee, Rodimus." Kup playfully rapped his knuckles on Roddy's plating.

"Only if I want you to, old timer." Roddy grinned up at him teasingly--a Hot Rod smile.

"And _do_ you, Prime?"

"...Maybe."


End file.
